Publication details
Úskalí popisu zvukové roviny jazyka
| Title in English | Critical points in describing the sound structure of a language |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2003 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Tradícia a perspektívy gramatického výskumu na Slovensku |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | sound structure; language; describing |
| Description | One of the permanent tasks of linguistics is a grammatical description of the present day language. As far as the elementary level, ie the level of phonetics and phonology, is concerned, it is necessary to start from the phonological point of view. However, the articulation and acoustics should not be neglected, either. The selection of phenomena included in the explanations is rather difficult, as the amount of exact knowledge from the field of phonetics keeps growing. Moreover, the sound form of speech is considerably variable within the range of a language and the standard variety, described in grammar books, may have orthoepic rules, but these rules often are neither properly learnt, nor strictly followed. Moreover, the limitation of the inventory of phonemes (in languages in which the sounds correspond with the particular letters) often follows the letters representing the particular sounds. This part of description of language is often underestimated. The recipients lack the knowledge of the present-day terminoogy of the discipline; and it is almost impossible to present explanations in such a situation. In grammars, the chapters concerning explanations of the sound structure are followed by explanations concerning the higher levels of the language, usually carried out on the basis of written texts - the initial chapter thus may to some recipients appear as an "end in itself". However, at present - as the importance of spoken communication within the society grows - this view is erroneous. The conclusion is as follows: a single change of explanations is not likely to change the traditional approach of grammars to the sound form of the language. It will be necessary to start in a more general way: namely to create an awareness of the distinction between the description of the language on the one hand and empirical knowledge of the language and the ability to use it on the other hand; these two aspects of language are - especially in the case of a mother tongue - sometimes regarded as identical. |
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